Southpaw (2015), R, ★★1/2

Jake Gyllenhaal confronting 50 Cent. 

The rise and downfall of boxing is cut-clear from many of the movies from its "niche genre". As I define a "niche genre", it means that it is a specific genre of sports in a category of sports films. Nevertheless, I categorize this movie as another addition to the boxing genre because there have been many and there have been a lot of good ones. My personal favorite two are easy: Raging Bull, a masterful film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring an excellent performance by Robert De Niro and Rocky, an underdog story starring Sylvester Stallone. I can name off the top of my head right now: Million Dollar Baby, Cinderella Man, The Fighter, etc. But, however, all boxing movies are not created equal because there has to be a story to back the fighting up that we want to root for and care about so we can try to identify with the character(s). Even though this recent boxing film has some of those powerful elements, it becomes a fine boxing movie with familiar clichés.

Billy "The Great" Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a famous boxer who is about to go into a ring to fight an opponent as Billy's wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams) attends the match and witnessing the horror of seeing him getting hit brutally. He eventually wins the match but is taunted by another younger upstart boxer named Miguel "Magic" Escobar (Miguel Gomez) coming in and demanding Billy to fight him in the ring, claiming that he has never fought a real man.

Billy and Maureen have a daughter named Leila (Oona Lawrence) and she and Maureen fears for the safety of his life as Leila does not like how much Billy gets hurt but supports him no matter what and loves him no matter what. Maureen comments a bit later to quit or he will end up punch-drunk in two years. Billy's manager Jordan Mains (50 Cent) talks to Maureen about promoting Billy regarding his fights and wanting to get Billy more fights. She does not want to get Billy more fights.

However, one night, after a tragic event occurs, Billy suffers a lot of unfortunate events: being suspended from boxing because he punched a boxing referee during a fight, hearing some news from his accountant and Jordan that he has to sell the house because he is losing money, abusing drugs while looking for Hector and losing Leila to Child Services due to reckless behavior. The latter make him and Leila upset because he did not perform and lost the only family he has got and Leila is upset because to the particular tragedy, which is unfortunately spoiled in the trailer. Don't watch the trailer.

Billy goes back to the Wills Gym where he meets former boxer Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker), who is blind in one eye after his last fight. Billy wants Tick to get him back on his feet, but knowing his recent history, Tick is hesitant. However, Tick offers Billy a janitorial job, but declines. As he visits Leila constantly, Billy has trouble bonding with her one day and then everything is in good terms in another day. Billy has to redeem himself from his unfortunate but forgiving sins to make everything right for himself and his daughter.

McAdams consoling Gyllenhaal.

I liked most of this movie especially the fighting sequences as director Antoine Fuqua makes the boxing scenes more brutal and glossy as we experience how the trainer examine the boxer as he gets pummeled as each round passes. The details from the face wounds are a bit hard to watch and is quite expertly shot. It is one of the better-looking boxing scenes up there with Raging Bull. However, the melodramatic plot of Billy trying to be back on top is predictable as we have seen a few of these elements before. We have seen the greedy promotions character, the grungy trainer, the tragedy, the rude opponent and redemption from all of The Rocky movies. It felt like the director took too much of a chance and yet he has made a sort of Rocky rip-off filled with profanity.

Jake Gyllenhaal gives another strong and chameleonic performance as a ripped boxer who has a lot in his mind that drags his down to an all-time low. However, he tries everything to get his fame back, but most importantly, his daughter. The bonding between father and daughter is quite powerful, too. Forest Whitaker is compelling as the grumpy trainer, sort of ripping off Mickey from the Rocky movies but he is quite interesting. 50 Cent is surprisingly good but his character is predictable. And, I wished Rachel McAdams was in this movie a bit more time because she is really good in the movie.

Fuqua (director of Training Day and The Equalizer) has made an entertaining boxing film somewhere. However, the pacing is a bit inconsistent as the first act is slow but it sort of picks up. When Whitaker's character makes a decision and propels to train Billy because of an incident, the little subplot regarding another character is unnecessary and could've been cut. It is hackneyed. I felt like if they had cut 10-15 minutes, it would've been a very good movie. There are strong performances all around, even though I don't Gyllenhaal will not get an Oscar nomination, and great boxing scenes. Despite having hefty emotion in the last scene, the movie does not live up to the hype due to the familiar tools to the story and does not generate as much emotion as I wanted. It is not a contender to go to the movies for, but I would just view it as a rental.

**1/2